


You Say - - - - - - With Your Mouth

by foollikeme



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, Sign Language, highschool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8114905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foollikeme/pseuds/foollikeme
Summary: Tyler adores the punk kid in the back of his class, and from a rather close distance.





	

Josh's hands were quick. In spite of things, he knew how to use them, and didn't expect pity for it. Communication was not a need, and Josh was sure that he could see the entire world light up in a Minor key, rather than its usual Major, only for a fraction of a second whenever he signed something. The complete opposite of talking, but both can be used to create a healthy relationship between the perfectly okay and the perfectly fine.

Tylers hands were quick too, but in a completely different way. In order for him to play piano, they had to be quick, and Tyler had remembered a day when he had the worst time trying to combine ideals from both a Minor and a Major key. The two were totally different; with an overall change of aesthetic beyond everything, and it didn't do Tyler much justice in the end of everything. His hands were quick nonetheless, though, from practicing and overeall experience.

When Tyler had met Josh, it wasn't because of his fingers, the way they tapped together and interlocked to form words or phrases. It was more so just the want to finish his Geometry homework, in 10th grade. No sophmore payed much attention to the soft-spoken boy in the back of the classroom, sometimes being pulled outside by Miss Lockinge just for a simple "check-in", as she had once called it.

The topic being discussed had something to do with the words: 'linear, bisector, postulate, and segment.' Tyler had barely scribbled down any significant notes, and by the awkward shuffles and sighs of confusion he heard around the room, nobody else had as well.

Like a hawk, Tyler had scanned the entire classroom, searching for anyone that looked a lot less confused than he had. Tyler was well-known, and people liked him. A good, Christian basketball player on Honor Roll, good with the ladies and a gentleman in total. He could find help easy, he always did.

And there, in the back of class, softly tapping out an unfamiliar beat with an unsharpened mechanical pencil, sat Josh. Tyler couldn't have missed him, with his aquamarine hair and punk-style. Josh was eye-candy, if eye-candy existed in the form of fifteen/sixteen year old boys. He was lost in the tiny beat he was making, head swaying from side to side softly.

"Okay, split up into partners! Review the added postulalte in your notes, feel free to ask questions." Miss Lockinge sure was an asshole, but Tyler would get down on his knees and thank her for this given moment. Quickly, he was up and out of his seat, rushing over to the seat empty next to Josh. Josh hadn't noticed, which was strange, but when he spoke up, Josh's eyes darted to Tyler's own in a curious manner.

"O-oh! Hi Tyler!" Josh grinned, seemingly suprised at himself for remembering someone's name.

Tyler responded by giving Josh a bored half-smile, and then quieted down over the loud yelling of fellow students. "Hi. I figured we could work together. Uh, you did the 8.9 notes, yeah?" Tyler asked, and Josh shot him a quizzical look.

"I'm sorry?" He asked, still confused.

Tyler repeated what he had said, a little clearer. He was confused as to how Josh couldn't hear him, he wasn't exactly a quiet guy. Josh sighed heavily and looked to his lap for a few seconds before beginning to shuffle through his jean pockets. Tyler only watched, confused slightly. He was even more confused when Josh pulled these earbud-like devives from a case in his pocket, beginning to insert them in his ears carefully. He then spent a few seconds fidgeting with the dials accordingly, before turning back to Tyler sheepishly.

"Sorry. I hate wearing these. I'm like, really REALLY hard of hearing. Might go deaf soon, so my mom's been trying to force me to wear these all the time."

Tyler only stared in shock, hoping the wince of pity he had didn't shine through his surprise. He had seen people with hearing aids before, but those were only his grandpa and his eldest uncle. He's never seen a kid with loss of hearing, let alone someone who's deaf. "Oh..."

"Yeah, but don't worry. I can hear you now, so what did you say before?" Josh gave Tyler a small smile, all angles of nervousness vanishing from his face instantly.

"Oh! Oh, um. I wanted to ask if you had the notes taken from like, five minutes ago."

"Tsk tsk." Josh's small grin faded into a smirk, and he tilted his head to the side ever so slightly. "Copying, are we now?" 

Tyler grinned wide, mainly at how genuinely comfortable Josh made all of his surroundings. Nothing was awkward or tense, he made sure of that somehow, and that made Tyler feel important. "Of course! Now, hand over the notes, small one."

"PFFT! I am not small. But, fine, here..." Josh pulled a slip of paper from a light blue folder in his binder and slapped it on Tyler's desk, scooting closer to help Tyler if he needed it. Which, apparently, he did.

"Uh, do I need to go out and buy a compass?" Tyler asked Josh, who nodded in response. Tyler only groaned, slapping his face on the desk dramatically. "Who do these teachers think I am?! Someone with money to waste on petty plastics? No sir!" Josh laughed, and Tyler felt a small sense of accomplishment in that. For some, dumb reason.

"They're like, three bucks at Walmart dude."

"Too pricy, I could tape a golf pencil to my ruler and get the same results."

"Genuis! Put that on Kickstarter." Josh winked, and Tyler giggled loudly. "Petition for $40,000. Invention: 'Lazy Measure'."

Josh made a small signal with his hands that Tyler couldn't recognize. Curiosity kills. "What was that?" He asked, genuinely wondering. Josh's smile only managed to get bigger, and he sank lower in his chair. 

"I sign. I have to, so sometimes it comes out when I don't want it to." Josh made another hand motion, fluid and easy to miss had Tyler not been intriuged beforehand. "That means lazy. It's just an L on my chest." 

Tyler mimicked the action (pretty badly) and looked at Josh with awe. "Woah. Can you sign Tyler?" He asked, and Josh nodded before doing so.

"I'm not fluent yet. It messes me up sometimes, the letters." Josh shrugged, now looking very interested in the seams hanging from his worn jeans. "You might like it, though! A lot of people I've met enjoy it. Plus, translating Sign is like, SUPER high-paying." Josh smirked, sending Tyler a knowing look.

"Oh, sweet! I'd so be able to afford that compass then, dude." The taller of the two ruffled up his hair, laughing at his own joke. Josh followed suit.

The two spent hours like this together, seeing as they shared nearly every class. Minus Chior, which Tyler took instead of the Band that Josh had taken. (Much to his dismay.) In a total of three school hours and one single lunch hour, Tyler had learned almost half of the alphabet and how to sign "Hello! My name is" almost perfectly. It was time-consuming, but the looks of adoration shared between the two boys was enough to drive him up the wall in determination to learn this. For Josh, mainly, but for him too. 

When Tyler got home from school that day, the first thing he did was open up his laptop and search up "how to say: i love you in asl" before adding the YouTube tutorial to his "for later use" bookmark.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter - laquoart


End file.
